I love the preschool years. When my oldest was in that stage I delighted in crafting literature and sensory rich learning opportunities to do together.

But now that I’m on number 4 and so very busy “officially” homeschooling the older 3, I needed to streamline and make finding those special moments with my youngest actually happen.

VINTAGE PRESCHOOL to the rescue!

So I’ve gone old school – vintage, really. I’ve turned to the way our grandmothers and great grandmother’s taught so many essential preschool skills. I’ve embraced the power of finger plays and rhymes.

I did this with my oldest because I had time and drive to pull out nursery rhyme books and read. I’d then spend time surfing the internet in search of those finger plays that I vaguely remember from my own childhood. But I’ll be the first to admit that it didn’t happen with the next two boys. Since Greta has had some speech delays, I knew that helping her in this area was paramount. So I set out to collect my favorite finger plays and preschool rhymes and this time make cards for everyday use; Because if I had an easy to grab ring with cards where I didn’t have to pull out books, where I didn’t get side tracked by my phone, I knew I could make the most of this simple, yet powerfully effective tool.

It’s crazy to think about how they learn counting, sequencing, and hone fine motor skills simply by singing “1, 2 Buckle My Shoe.” The “Eensy-Weensy Spider” is full of fun vocabulary and is crazy effective at developing fine-motor skills. They learn self-regulation by singing “Open, Shut Them,” when they have to strategically pause and hold their bodies completely still. As we sing out the rhyming words they are developing important phonemic skills that not only help them with speaking now, but also lay the foundation for learning how to read later. By moving their bodies, the brain is being wired to learn. As we’ve been using this over the last year and a half, I’ve realized that this really was a baby sister to my Brain Breaks book. Movement wires the brain to learn and in the early years movement, plus song packs a powerful punch in also developing oral and pre-reading skills! And I’m just loving the simplicity in embracing this form of vintage preschool prep!

So here you go… The benefits of repetition without the work of pulling it together. {You’re welcome!} This set of 30 cards comes professionally printed, hole-punched with a ring so you are ready to go! All of the words and motions right there at your fingertips. Here in our home, we pull this out every morning to give some focused attention to Greta! You can see how she feels about her “school” time!

I’d love to share a special coupon code just for you! Simply use SING to get 20% off anytime before August 7th!

You can check out the official information page for ordering information!I also want to give away a copy to one lucky winner. Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter through Saturday August 1st! If you already ordered the cards, I’ll issue a full refund or I’ll ship the winning set to a friend of yours! Giveaway open to US and Canadian residents only.

Well, in hindsight anyways! There is something about the struggle to figure a problem out that gives intense satisfaction afterwards. Today I’m sharing about the trials and triumphs of discovery learning and how important it is for us to take a step back and not do all the mental work for our kids. Instead we can and should give them the TIME to discover how NOT to do something which is part of the process of discovery.

{I may or may not be really just preaching to myself. But feel free to read along too…}

Learning how to view ‘failure’ can have a dramatic impact on their life and we have opportunities each and every day to help change our children’s perspective that will pay life-long dividends!

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“It doesn’t look that hard,” my oldest commented as we read about how Benjamin Franklin ran his printing shop.

Famous last words, my son. Famous last words.

You would think by now that he would realize that comments like this pose a challenge to his mama. Naturally, I sat wracking my brain trying to figure out an idea for ‘playing print shop.’ A search led me to this idea that I quickly pinned.

We didn’t have stamps to use, but we ran down to the dollar store and picked up these foam A-B-C letters and I turned him loose.

We decided to start with something short to try out this whole ‘printing’ thing. He selected double stick tape to attach the letters to our cookie sheet. Do you catch anything amiss here? It took an incredible amount of self-control to not step in and ‘fix’ this. But I knew that if I stepped in, he would miss out on a valuable learning opportunity.

When inventor, Thomas Edison was queried by a reporter about the seemingly incredible difficulties associate with his work on the light bulb he rebutted,

“I have not failed 700 times. I’ve succeeded in proving 700 ways how not to build a light bulb.”

Learning from our mistakes can be very powerful way to cultivate critical thinking skills.But as a mother, it is oh so hard sometimes to not step in and ‘help.’ I have to constantly remind myself to stop.

Once he made his first print ‘backwards’, we talked about what he could possibly do to make it look ‘right’. Some personalities will handle this process easier than others. My second son would want to figure this out by H.I.M.S.E.L.F. It is harder for my oldest.

He is my communicator and it was helpful to him to talk it out. So as carefully as I could, I provided that sounding board without leading to the answer. Finally, he figured it out and we printed out the headline for our patriotic paper!

Not only did my son gain valuable insight into the printing life of Benjamin Franklin, but also the joy of discovery that inventors feel when they finally figure it out!

I’m thankful for homeschooling and the opportunity it is providing each of my children to learn through personal discovery. I’m thankful for the lessons in self-control that it provides for me.

Discovery Learning is Important Because It…

Fosters Critical Thinking. It is so important to sharpen their minds and engage them in the thinking process.

Builds Problem Solving Skills. Having to figure a problem out for oneself is of far greater value than having them watch you do everything.

Leads to Independence. The two previous benefits work together to build independence! One of the most important things we can do for our children is help them to survive and thrive on their own. This includes figuring out new challenges that come their way in life.

How Do We Encourage All This?

Gag and handcuffs, my friends.

Curriculum author Jessica Hulcy, talks extensively about discovery learning and uses this analogy. We need to sit on our hands, close our mouths and provide our children TIME to figure this out. For those talkers in our family or to ease frustration in this process of discovery learning, we can ask a few open-ended questions to help them with the thinking process. The goal here is for THEM to have that magical ‘aha’ moment when the light bulb of understanding turns on. And like Edison, this might take time, but there CAN be joy in the journey.

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